Articulated members such as robotic arms are used in a wide variety of applications, such as automated manufacturing lines. Such members carry out a number of mechanically manipulative tasks such as picking and placing components onto an assembly, installing hardware, creating welds, etc.
Closed loop control techniques are often employed to ensure that the members are controllably moved with respect to a known reference point. In this way, a command to move the member to a given location can be translated into the correct actuator inputs to accurately drive the member to said location.
It is often desirable to calibrate, or “teach,” the system in order to update the known reference point. This compensates for various errors that occur over time such as placement errors of the workpiece, deflection of the member, gain or noise errors in the control circuitry, etc.
While a variety of point teaching approaches have been proposed, there nevertheless remains a continual need for improvements in the art that increase accuracy, reduce computational complexity, and reduce or eliminate the effects of user subjectivity during the process. It is to these and other improvements that the claimed invention is generally directed.